G Wiv wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:JSM, I really like those Royal Oak foodservice briquettes you show in your post.

I occasionally use the Royal Oak briquettes, they burn clean, if a bit slow, and the only additional ingredient is vegetable starch for binder.

Gary,

My suspicion is that Royal Oak briquettes contain pretty much the same ingredients as Kingsford. These include mineral char, mineral carbon and sodium nitrate. I see no confirmation of ingredients in Royal Oak Briquettes.

The Royal Oak Plus bags include the warning, "Do Not Use in a Water Smoker Grill". Why?

Tim

Tim wrote:My suspicion is that Royal Oak briquettes contain pretty much the same ingredients as Kingsford. These include mineral char, mineral carbon and sodium nitrate. I see no confirmation of ingredients in Royal Oak Briquettes.

Tim,

Just to double check, I called Berger bros, they said Royal Oak Chefs Select 100% hardwood briquettes are simply compressed ground up lump charcoal with vegetable starch as a binder.

Enjoy,
Gary

G Wiv wrote:

Tim wrote:My suspicion is that Royal Oak briquettes contain pretty much the same ingredients as Kingsford. These include mineral char, mineral carbon and sodium nitrate. I see no confirmation of ingredients in Royal Oak Briquettes.

Tim,

Just to double check, I called Berger bros, they said Royal Oak Chefs Select 100% hardwood briquettes are simply compressed ground up lump charcoal with vegetable starch as a binder.

Enjoy,
Gary

Regardless of their contents, the 2 products smell nothing alike when they're burning.

=R=

Thanks,

I have sources of Royal Oak Premium Briquettes, yes, with all those wonderful coal products.

Where is the RO Chef Select 100% Hardwood Briquettes charcoal available? Is Berger Brothers the only location or are there some major retail sources?

Tim

Tim wrote:Thanks,

I have sources of Royal Oak Premium Briquettes, yes, with all those wonderful coal products.

Where is the RO Chef Select 100% Hardwood Briquettes charcoal available? Is Berger Brothers the only location or are there some major retail sources?

Tim

I get mine at Schaefer's in Skokie. They also carry the red bags of Royal Oak. Pricing isn't what I'd describe as aggressive but it's convenient . . . and they carry Pata Negra there, too.

=R=

Schaefer's Wines, Foods & Spirits
9965 Gross Point Rd
Skokie, IL 60076
847 677-9463

Last summer Schaefer's also had Lazzari hardwood charcoal, my personal favorite. I haven't been this year to see if they still have it. My recollection is that they charged $10 for a 15 or 20 lb bag (I don't recall which). Zier's also had it for $14/bag.

Berger Brothers sells the 40lb bag for $15.

I walked into my neighborhood quinquaillerie about an hour ago to get a key made. But what, to my wondering eyes, should appear but






Yessssssssss! Be still my heart!

Geo happy now!

Geo

Have to say I'm a little disappointed in Berger Brothers. I picked up a couple bags of lump a few weeks ago. I handled it very carefully as I was prepping for a 20 hour smoke and wanted large pieces. To my dismay the lump was really broken up when opened at home. Tons of small pieces and dust. I don't know if that's a similar experience to most here. I'll give them another strike. If it's bad again, I'll go back to Cowboy lump. It's not my favorite, but a nearby hardware store carries it and it's normally handled pretty well.

HT70, which brand did you buy?

Darren - just the regular lump (not briquettes) Royal Oak.

Geo wrote:I walked into my neighborhood quinquaillerie about an hour ago to get a key made. But what, to my wondering eyes, should appear but






Yessssssssss! Be still my heart!

Geo happy now!

Geo

I don't see any French on the label. Isn't that like a sudden death issue where you are?

Regards,

Good point C2! But I didn't look on the backside. It's ok to have one side française and the other English. So let's just assume that it's a correctly labelled produce.

In fact, it MUST be labelled in French as well: as you note, it's a sudden-death deal in Canadia. So yeah, the backside is in française.

Geo

ronnie_suburban wrote:The bag in the pic says "burns hotter." Do they intend that to mean hotter than briquettes or hotter than their non-steakhouse variety lump? It seems intentionally vague. I'm guessing this new variety is really just some additional marketing applied to their standard lump but who knows . . .

ronnie_suburban

A place in Boston I recently visited called Brookline Ice and Coal informed me that the Royal Oak Steak House Lump Charcoal allegedly "burns hotter" because the lumps of charcoal in this line are smaller than Royal Oak's regular lump charcoal and accordingly have a greater surface to mass ratio. In theory, the larger surface area on the smaller coals (for the same volume of coal) equals more coal burning at once, which equals a hotter burn. It does, of course, also mean a much faster burn than ordinary lump charcoal.

As other posters have noted, it's intended more for grilling than bbq. I can't say from experience if it makes a noticeable difference, as I didn't actually buy a bag and stuck with the regular Royal Oak lump charcoal for the grilling I was doing that weekend. I'm going with the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" theory on this one.

Geo wrote:I walked into my neighborhood quinquaillerie about an hour ago to get a key made. But what, to my wondering eyes, should appear but






Yessssssssss! Be still my heart!

Geo happy now!

Geo

Geo,

Are you in Montreal now? Because just 30 minutes ago, I purchased some bags of French Canadian Royal Oak at Berger Bros. Now that's an interesting turn of events, eh?

Yo Stevez--

Yup, I'm in Montreal, even as we speak. How strange--you've got charbon de bois canadien there! Tell you what, I'll go back to the hardware store tomorrow morning and get a bag, then report back on all the circumstances!

Geo

Front


Arrière

Geo wrote: So yeah, the backside is in française.

Geo

Must . . . resist . . . setup . . . line.

Funny stevez, yours is blue, mine is red. So to say. Methinks I've given up another setup line to Kman!

But it strikes me as weird that I've got what appears to be the normal Etats-Unies bag, the red one, here, but you get the clearly Canadian blue bag there.

Sheesh, who knows??

Geo

Geo wrote:But it strikes me as weird that I've got what appears to be the normal Etats-Unies bag, the red one, here, but you get the clearly Canadian blue bag there.

Sheesh, who knows??

I bought a few bags of Royal Oak at Berger last week, now my curiosity is piqued, though I know my wife is going to look at me strangely (again) as I head to the garage with my camera.

G Wiv wrote:as I head to the garage with my camera.

No need to take a picture, it is exactly the same as Steve's. Not surprising as we bought it the same place, just a few days apart.

HT70 wrote:Have to say I'm a little disappointed in Berger Brothers.... Tons of small pieces and dust. I don't know if that's a similar experience to most here.

I had the exact opposite "problem" with my most recent 20 lb. bag from Berger Bros.--the pieces were huge, and lots of it had to be broken up to fit into the charcoal ring of the WSM. There's usually some dust and schmutz in the bags--maybe the bottom 1/5th--but mostly big pieces. Don't give up on Berger...they're an incredible resource.

here is a nice site that reviews the different brands of lump...including the different variations of royal oak from South America
http://www.nakedwhiz.com/lump.htm

Has anyone used this stuff? On the surface, it seems like an oxymoron.

I don't know how you can make a 'Lump Briquet'!
Looks like ad speak.
I either pick up Nature Glow or the retail version, Royal Oak.
These are now made from mill tailings.
Real lump is almost non Existent at a reasonable price.-Richard

Looks like another entry into the Lies they Feed Us thread.